A primary use of computers, especially personal computers, is “word processing.” Word processors have replaced the typewriter as a principal means for document production. When producing documents, it is typically very important that each word is spelled correctly. In word processors, a spell checking program (spell checker) is often used to check the spelling of words in a document. The user typically invokes a spell checker by selecting a spelling tool option. A spell checker has an associated dictionary file that contains a list of correctly spelled words. To check the spelling of a word in the document, the spell checker searches the dictionary for that word. If the word is in the dictionary, then the word is correctly spelled. Otherwise, the word is misspelled. The spell checker typically reports misspelled words to the user and prompts for the correct spelling. For every potentially misspelled word, the spelling tool may prompt the user to replace, ignore, or edit the word. This prompting often involves the presentation of a selectable list of similarly spelled words that the user may select from. When the user selects the desired word, the spell checker then replaces the misspelled words with the correctly spelled word.
Spell checking is also provided at various Internet web pages, such as the popular Alta Vista web site at www.altavista.com that provides alternate spellings to words that are misspelled when users enter words in order to searching for information on the web. A system and method for an improved spell checker is, therefore, useful for word processing in any arena in which text is typed, such as in computers or in web search engines. The use of an improved spell checker is not restricted to documents that are generated by typing at a keyboard, but also applies to text generated by voice input or handwriting input.
Spell checking according to the current process is inefficient because the selectable list of similarly spelled words may not actually contain the word the user was attempting to spell. If the list does contain the word, it is often cumbersome to locate the correct word in a list containing many alternative spellings. Thus, while current spell checking is a helpful feature, it is not efficient in terms of required user interaction.
Examples of spell checkers that use databases of similarly spelled words are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,443 issued to Nielsen on Feb. 23, 1999. This patent discusses the use of remote databases available on the Internet and is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Examples of “background” spell checking are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,451 issued to Mogilevsky on Jul. 28, 1998, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. “Background” spell checking refers to spell checking performed during idle periods of the word processor. The spell checker performs “background” spell checking so that spelling errors can be conveniently highlighted through the document during an editing session.